NW mustang makeover set
For the second year in a row, the Extreme Mustang Makeover challenge is headed to the Northwest Horse Fair and Expo, which will be March 19-21 at the Linn County Fair and Expo Center in Albany, Ore.
The Northwest event is a spin-off of the Extreme Mustang Makeover f ...
Sunday, March 21, 2010 1:09 AM
Northwest state agriculture directors are calling for the Environmental Protection Agency to revise its methods for establishing no-spray buffers for Western state waterways.
In setting buffers for the first group of pesticides reviewed under a court order, EPA failed to consider the economic i ...
Sunday, March 21, 2010 3:09 PM
ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Ashland City Council will not join the U.S. Forest Service as a defendant in a lawsuit over thinning in the Ashland watershed.
Councilwoman Kate Jackson says the thinning project is essential to the health of the watershed, but the city's legal department ...
Sunday, March 21, 2010 3:09 PM
SEATTLE (AP) -- They huddled in the bushes after dark, peering through the grass to spy on shellfish gatherers.
A dozen times over seven months, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers camped at night on the shores of Hood Canal, keeping tabs on men they suspected of poachi ...
Sunday, March 21, 2010 10:49 AM
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- Low pesticide concentrations, generally below levels that violate state or federal water quality standards, have been detected in five Washington watersheds where salmon are found, according to a new study.
The three-year study by the state departments of Ecology ...
Sunday, March 21, 2010 9:28 AM
SEATTLE (AP) -- A Port Townsend farmer apparently had a secret life as a bank robber. Michael Fenter, owner of Compass Rose Farm, has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to four counts of bank robbery and weapons charges.
The charges stem from holdups in Seattle, Tacoma, ...
Sunday, March 21, 2010 9:28 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A for-profit subsidiary of Portland-based EcoTrust has sold its first carbon credits from Washington forest land it owns.
The deal puts more than 3,000 acres on Washington Olympic Peninsula into the market for credits designed to offset business and government ...
Sunday, March 21, 2010 9:28 AM
The sugar beet industry expressed relief after a federal judge on March 16 denied an effort to block the use of genetically engineered seeds this season.
"We're excited, we're glad," said Vic Jaro, president and CEO of Amalgamated Sugar Co. in Boise. "That turns us loose; our growers can ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 9:08 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Hay exporter Rollie Bernth doesn't suffer from a deficiency of overseas customers.
The problem is transporting his hay across the Pacific Ocean, said Bernth, president of the Ward Rugh hay company in Ellensburg, Wash.
"We're not able to get hay shipped," Bernth said ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:09 AM
Oregon State University's College of Agricultural Sciences is proposing to merge some departments and change its name as part a university-wide strategic alignment initiated last year by Provost Sabah Randhawa.
Under the proposal, the College of Agricultural Sciences would become the Coll ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 8:08 AM
With many consumers these days pondering where their food comes from, agriculture is eager to tell its story to the non-farm public.
Spurred by legislative and economic challenges as well as marketing opportunities, many agricultural voices can be heard as farmers, ranchers and commodity ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:09 AM
The Pacific Northwest continues to have a strong presence in the National Association of Wheat Growers.
Jerry McReynolds of Woodston, Kan., assumed the presidency of the association for a year-long term during the association's March 6 meeting at the 2010 Commodity Classic in Anaheim, Ca ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:08 AM
The sage grouse isn't listed as an endangered species, but federal officials hope to help ranchers protect the bird's habitat and avoid that fate.
"We have a window of time that we can take steps proactively to help the bird's habitat," USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Da ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:09 AM
PULLMAN, Wash. -- Kulvinder Gill can't speed up time, but he can speed up the work of wheat breeders at the new Washington State University doubled haploid laboratory.
Normally, when wheat breeders cross any two wheat lines, several succeeding generations of wheat seed are different unti ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:08 AM
A U.S.-funded wheat program is helping fight the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The program, Food Zone, distributes wheat seed -- the variety is Roshan 96 -- to roughly 33,000 farmers to help them switch from growing opium poppies.
From December 2008 to August 2009, Michael ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 9:08 AM
CHRISTMAS VALLEY, Ore. -- When Gary Perkins heard that solar companies were buying nearby fields and planning to fill them with commercial solar arrays, the Christmas Valley alfalfa farmer snapped up two parcels in front of his log cabin.
He didn't want to see the sagebrush replaced by so ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:08 AM
A leader in Pacific Northwest wheat breeding is leaving Oregon State University.
OSU wheat breeder Jim Peterson in May will become vice president of research for France-based farmer cooperative Limagrain Cereal Seeds.
Peterson will help the company build a U.S. wheat breeding progra ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:09 AM
PORTLAND -- The Food Innovation Center, Oregon's only urban experiment station, is "well poised" to survive the current budget crisis, said station superintendent Michael Morrissey.
The station "is doing better in product development than I would have thought, given what the economy is d ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:09 AM
The American Farm Bureau Federation is asking a federal district court to delay Obama administration changes to the H-2A foreign guestworker program.
The organization and the North Carolina Growers Association filed a lawsuit March 12 in Greensboro, N.C., seeking a temporary restraining ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:08 AM
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has issued a drought declaration for Klamath County, expanding irrigation opportunities for growers facing potentially the worst drought since 2001.
The executive order allows irrigators to apply for emergency water use permits.
In addition to Klamath County, it ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 10:08 AM
Washington state legislators returned to Olympia on March 15 for a special session expected to last a week or more.
The Democrat-controlled Senate and House fell short of agreeing on a tax plan to cover declining revenue and on budgets to pay for government operations and construction.
...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 1:09 AM
OLYMPIA -- Legislators looking to get out of Olympia late last week had their plans put on hold by the call for a special session.
However, they started looking at summer plans anyway.
The House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources gathered for its interim planning session on Ma ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 1:09 AM
OLYMPIA -- Several legislators acknowledged the irony of rain outside the windows -- and another foot of snow falling in the Cascade Mountains -- as they tackled the serious job of preparing for drought.
The Joint Legislative Committee on Water Supply During Drought convened March 11, the ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 1:09 AM
WATERVILLE, Wash. -- Farmers and ranchers in Douglas County, Wash., believe they will be ready if the greater sage grouse is ever listed as threatened or endangered by the federal government.
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced March 5 that it wouldn't list the sage grouse unde ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 1:09 AM
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Klamath Basin farmers will get some water for crops this year, but far less than they hoped for after protected fish get what they need to survive the drought.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor said Thursday it hopes to send at least 30 percent ...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 1:29 PM
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service announced today that funding is available to help Klamath Basin farmers avoid soil loss.
Under a special drought initiative, farmers are eligible to receive between 75 and 90 percent of the cost of establishing cover crops to decrease topsoil loss.
...
Saturday, March 20, 2010 11:29 AM